Chapter Text
Guan Chao sits at the counter, fiddling with the cash register. An unopened can of KICK SODA lies in front of him. Resting his head in his arms, his eyes lock onto a drop of condensation slowly dripping down the can's side. Slowly, slowly…
Today, traffic was relatively slow. Not many customers appeared so far, and it's nearing 6 o’ clock. Every waking minute was spent fighting to not fall asleep.
Right now, he is failing in that endeavor. He tries his hardest not to let his eyelids droop, but they're much too heavy. The enveloping sunlight wraps around him from where it shines inside, like a blanket of pure warmth and comfort.
This is enough to lull him to sleep; the hold of unconsciousness takes Guan Chao into its hands.
Being asleep is often better than being awake. You're in a state of unknowing, unfeeling, and you're totally free of torment—so long as you don't fall into a nightmare. It doesn't come often for Guan Chao, but when they do, he just wakes up in a cold sweat and wishes he was dead instead.
He thinks he's floating. A white void surrounds him, a subtle gray gradient stretching above him. KICK SODA's mascot, a strange little fella with an overly joyous expression, circles around him, its legs whirling as it tries to run in the air. A dream? It's not a bad thing. The alternative is much worse.
Suddenly, everything around him pops and he's plunged in darkness.
A finger gently pokes Guan Chao's shoulder. When he doesn't rouse the first time, it returns with double the force. Only then does he jolt up to meet the face of Xiao Yi. His eyes flit to the clock on the wall. Just as he expected, it was around 6 o’ clock.
Their exchange remains silent. In Xiao Yi's hand, she holds a KICK SODA. As she places the soda on the counter, the light glints off the can's shine. Somewhere, there's the distant click and hiss of a can opening, just like back then.
Someone's face, though the upper half is blurred, comes to mind. His grin is the only thing clear as day as he holds out his KICK SODA to clink theirs together. Cheers!
“Hey.” Xiao Yi is the first to break the silence.
Guan Chao realizes he's been zoning out, and he hurriedly scans the barcode. “Um, your total…” He reads it out.
Xiao Yi digs through her pocket, placing the money down. “Say, do you ever find yourself subconsciously longing for the end of the world?”
“What?” Guan Chao goes still again. Where on Earth is this coming from? It's so sudden, he can't formulate a response.
“One of these days, it will come. You don't have to worry.” Xiao Yi looks down at the two KICK SODAs. “I grabbed the last one on the shelves. You can have it, share these with someone.” She turns without taking her can, exiting the store. “It's on me.”
Guan Chao can only watch her retreating back, utterly confused. The rest of his shift is spent glancing at the two cans. ‘Share these with someone…’
Nobody comes to mind. Absolutely nobody. Well, none of the three who hang around Guan Chao take a liking to this brand. That's why.
When he finds A Heng, Pao Pao, and Qin Wang by the river, he takes a seat with them. In both hands, he holds a KICK SODA.
“Want one?” Guan Chao extends a can, looking at them without much expectations.
Qin Wang shakes his head no, still waving around his ruler. Pao Pao doesn't even look at his offer. He hates that brand with a passion.
A Heng looks like she wants to refuse, but she sighs and grabs it anyway. “Sure. Maybe it'll be better the fifth time. Anything exciting happen during your shift? I doubt it.”
Guan Chao prepares to say no like always, but he pauses. “Maybe…”
“Oh? What happened, what happened? Tell us!” Pao Pao jumps up. Story time!
He relays the first three sentences Xiao Yi uttered.
“‘It will come?’ ‘Don't worry?’ That's… horribly cryptic.” A Heng cracks open the KICK SODA.
“I have no idea what prompted that,” Guan Chao murmurs. Now that he's out of the store, he takes his time to really ponder on Xiao Yi's question.
Subconsciously longing for the world to end… Given his nature (he's self aware enough), the chances are that he has. Passing days are so miserable sometimes, he just wants to fade away. Either him or the world, what does it matter?
“We're seriously screwed if she says when the world ends!” Pao Pao suddenly exclaims.
“Why's that?” A Heng squints down at him.
“Pao Pao says she's a prophet, of sorts,” Qin Wang speaks up. “She's always predicting things around him.”
“Yeah! Like, ‘watch your head’, then a container whacked me!” Pao Pao cringes. “And stuff like the weather, too! All of it!”
“You sure it's not just a coincidence?” A Heng snorts, then after a beat of silence, “Though, to be honest, I wouldn't mind if the world ended.”
‘...Should a student be saying things like that?’ Guan Chao thinks, idly observing the grass and picking at it. Was he better off when he was one?
“Every day just feels too ordinary and repetitive.”
“You aren't just saying that to be edgy and cool, are you?” Pao Pao pokes her shoulder.
“Hah? No! I'm just expressing my true inner thoughts.” A Heng scoffs, then takes a sip.
“Bleh!” She coughs, sticking her tongue out. “I don't know how you can stand these! Actually, I don't even know why we still sell these at all!”
Even though production stopped right after launch, their store kept selling them. They were known for their notoriously bad taste. Labeled orange, yet tasting like burning straw.
“They're not that bad.” Guan Chao says quietly. In fact, he finds himself liking it. To him, it tastes like nostalgia. He can't quite pinpoint why.
“I swear you and that girl are the only ones who buy them.”
“Well, about that… This is the last can.” Guan Chao looks down at his unopened soda. He can't bring himself to drink the final one, for some reason. Nostalgia's sake? Maybe he should just have a single sip every other day, hah.
“Can't bring yourself to drink it?” A Heng asks. “Here, just take mine for now.”
Guan Chao blinks up at her, then slowly takes it. At the end of the day, he didn't really share it with anyone.
Guan Chao's arms shake while he holds the heavy cardboard box of products. He lugs it over to the shelves, and that is the extent of his strength today. He's in a rush to deposit the box on the tiled floor, and as Guan Chao stands back up, he feels a rush of dizziness overtake him.
Before Guan Chao knows it, he's tipping backwards. Ah, is this how he dies? Whacking his head on the shelves behind him? It's a bit of an embarrassing way to die, totally anticlimactic, but he'll take what he gets.
Against his expectations, he doesn't meet his end in the convenience store. A hand grabs his waist, and he's suddenly propped back onto his feet by a strong grip.
“Careful,” a voice says, a soft lilt to it.
Guan Chao cranes his head to look up, startling as he meets the electric lime eyes of a fairly handsome man. The stranger smiles down at him, eventually letting go of his waist.
“...Thank you,” Guan Chao says. Then, blood drips from his nose, staining the collar of his shirt and falling to the floor. “Oh.”
“Ah?” It's the stranger's turn to startle this time. He looks around the store, eventually settling on the open tissue box set aside on the counter, which was next to the final KICK SODA. He makes his way over to retrieve a few, then hands them to Guan Chao, concern evident. “Tilt your head forward and pinch your nose…”
“Uh—” Guan Chao brings the bundle of tissues up to his nose, muffling his words. “Yeah, don't worry. I know.”
The stranger takes Guan Chao's free hand. His hands are rough, but they are gentle. He leads Guan Chao behind the counter to the stool. All the while, Guan Chao is thoroughly confused at the extent the stranger is going to take care of him. It was just a mere nosebleed, and they don't know each other. Still, it was sorta nice, albeit a little embarrassing.
“Does this happen often?” The stranger has a joking tone, tilting his head towards the tissue box that was conveniently ready for use. Not to mention the other dried bloody tissues already in the nearby trash bin.
“Mh… just poor health,” Guan Chao admits, “But—don't let me bother you and stop you from shopping. I'm fine, you can go take care of your business.”
“Oh, you aren't bothering me at all. Making sure someone is alright is never a bother to me.” The stranger grabs a couple more tissues, walking the short distance to wipe away the droplets of blood that splashed on the floor earlier. He soon returns and tosses the dirtied tissues in the bin.
Guan Chao knows this is just a stranger. He knows almost nothing about what this person is like, though the current situation gives him some idea. Despite all of this, his heart warms at the care being given. It really… It really has been a while since someone gave him such treatment out of the good of their heart.
Maybe it's because of the dizziness that still remains or just the melancholic mood of this very early morning, but Guan Chao feels tears spring in his eyes.
The stranger straightens up, takes one look at Guan Chao's face, and casually leans onto the counter. His features have twisted into silent understanding, brows slightly furrowed and his smile small. The stranger's gaze drifts down to his name tag. “You are Guan Chao?”
“Yeah.” Guan Chao tries to rapidly blink away the tears. Just to be polite, he asks, “And you are..?”
“Ran Deng,” he supplies.
“Ran Deng…” Guan Chao repeats before he can stop himself.
The man just smiles a bit wider and nods. “That's me.”
Guan Chao tries to remember if he's ever seen this person with such a distinctive look before, pale hair and vivid eyes. Xiao Yi comes to mind, but they are not the same.
“Have you ever come to this convenience store before?” Guan Chao inquires. “Do you live nearby?”
“I just moved here recently, actually,” Ran Deng says. His demeanor brightens immediately. “I came to live with my sister for the foreseeable future. Hongpai port really is a nice place.”
“Ah… is it?” Guan Chao personally thinks this small town isn't that nice, but to each their own.
“Mm. Aren't the sights gorgeous?” Ran Deng crosses his arms, fiddling with the cuffs of his dress shirt. “Well, it probably isn't anything special to a local, haha…”
At that, Guan Chao recounts the times he'd rouse from sleep to the sun rising, visible through the window high above. The memory of when he first got his room in the loft comes to mind, where he would rake his gaze across the rooftops and the glittering water, captivated. He never paid attention anymore.
“Maybe you're right,” Guan Chao mutters. He's on the fence about retracting that previous statement he made to himself. Sights alone aren't enough. “I haven't really sat down and looked in a while.”
“There are still many days to come. All the time in the world,” Ran Deng encourages him, “If you ever find yourself longing for it, it's a mere breath away.”
That is true as well. After all, Guan Chao has no plans to move, and he won't have any for a long while.
Before Guan Chao can come up with a response, there's a ding from Ran Deng's pocket. He fishes out his phone and lights up almost instantly. Though immediately after, he deflates. “I… completely forgot that I was supposed to pick up a drink for her. Hold on.”
Ran Deng rushes off to the freezer, dutifully scanning for something, maybe a specific brand. He eventually returns, dejected. “You don't happen to have…” His eyes land on the last KICK SODA from the day before, which Guan Chao still hasn't mustered up the courage to finish off. It's practically his emotional support charm now, still resting on the counter. “...this kind of soda?”
“Oh.” Guan Chao rubs his neck. “We ran out of stock, and production for this brand has stopped. I'm sorry…”
Ran Deng nods slowly. “I see. No problem, then.” He goes back to retrieve a random drink, hastily paying the fee. His smile is earnest. “Have a good day, Guan Chao. It was nice to meet you.”
“Uh—likewise.” Guan Chao returns the small wave Ran Deng gives, and then the interaction is over.
It's only now that he realizes this entire time, he has been holding the bundle of tissues to his nose, the blood long since dried. What a fool.